resident Park was born to a farming family which was synonym of poverty in Korea in the past as the farmers had always been the target of extortion and exploitation by the monarchs and their vassals as well as wealthy merchants. Following the liberation of Korea from the Japanese colonial rule of 36 years in 1945, the situation did not improve very much as they were continuously taken advantage of by the corrupt high officials of the government and the business tycoons, many of whom had close ties of corrupt conglutination and collaboration for personal gains and interests.
The first-term President Syngman Rhee was one of the prominent Korean independence fighters who worked for the Korean independence operating mostly in the United States. Following his inauguration in Korea as the first-term President of the Republic of Korea (ROK) in 1948, Rhee tried to run the country as he had learned democracy in the US, but he was advanced in age and this was taken advantage of by the corrupt politicians in the ruling camp (Liberal Party) and business tycoons. Love was lost between Rhee and the common people and at length students rose up in a revolution on April 19, 1960, which toppled the Liberal Party government of President Rhee. Rhee left Korean and lived in Hawaii in exile.
Korea was obviously not ready for a full democracy. The next government that came in the wake of Rhee’s fall led by Prime Minister John M. Chang (from the opposition Democratic Party), did not fare well either because of the people wanting to secure everything by hitting the street and demonstrating in demand for what they wanted.
North Korea had, as always, been looking for a chance to re-invade the South which the Communists had ruled for three months during the Korean War (1950-3). Concerned with this situation, the then Maj. Gen. Park Chung-Hee caused a military revolution (coup d’etat) and took over the control of the government on May 16, 1960.
This development of situation was not very pleasant to the US that wanted to see a democratic government in Korea. Naturally, the relationship between the US of the then President John F. Kennedy and the ROK of President Park Chung-Hee became strained.
By virtue of repeated Five-year Economic Development Plans and people’s self-improvement movements such as Saemaeul Undong (New Community Movement) under President Park, the Korean economy grew at a ‘miraculously’ rapid pace with the per-capita GNI (general national income) of the people jumping from mere US$67 (in 1960 when the coup occurred) to US$1,693 (in 1979 when President Park died), which represented more than a 25-fold increase in 19 years. Because of this, President Park enjoyed a very strong popularity among the Korean people although some young people had reservations due to the restriction of basic rights of the people, especially against the opposition politicians and unionized workers.
Park thus succeeded in attaining his first goal (eradication of poverty from the people and a self-supporting economy), but his second goal (a self-reliant national defense) was hard to achieve.
To make the matter worse, South Vietnam fell to North Vietnam and Viet Cong, and the US Forces withdrew from Vietnam altogether. This situation struck fear into the people in South Korea while it was a strong encouragement for the North Korean regime. There also was much talk about the US’ withdrawing of its armed forces also from Korea during the Democratic Party government of President Jimmy Carter who pursued a ‘human rights’ policy.